Linguistically, In the Mecca juxtaposes standard English with the vernacular and the language of the streets.
Furthermore, the building was a symbol for much that was wrong in the city. Before it was finally torn down, all that remained was an-unbelievably squalid tenement where thousands actually lived, and it became a symbol for a failure in urban living patterns. Enclosed courtways served as entrances to the elaborate apartments of the few elite families who lived in the much-visited Mecca, but in time the neighborhood changed and the Mecca fell into disrepair. During the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 it was a tourist attraction. Located a few blocks from Prairie Avenue (the city's original “gold coast”), no luxury was spared in its construction. The Mecca was one of the earliest examples in the United States of a multifamily dwelling for the wealthy. It is perhaps ironic that In the Mecca (1968), Gwendolyn Brooks's first overt attack on Chicago, appeared in the same year that she was appointed poet laureate of Illinois.
